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Last Summer (1969)
A chilling, underrated piece of work.
As I view this film, DIARY OF A MAD HOUSEWIFE and THE SWIMMER, I came to appreciate and realize the work of Frank Perry. He is an unrecognized director who created great films that are unfortunately largely forgotten. The New Hollywood movement in the 1960's and early to 1970's was exciting, challenging audiences with artistic stories that Hollywood never dreamed of making during the heydays of the Production Code (very rare exceptions crept in). In the 1960s audiences were treated to a younger, edgier and more intense approach to subject matter and movies. All of these things received awards, accolades and astonishing commercial success.
LAST SUMMER is one of those movies that received attention and accolades, but never really had an enduring legacy, except maybe only to film aficionados. Here we have the story of three teenagers, Peter, Dan and Sandy that are spending summer vacation together in the very treacherous heat of New York at Fire Island. In that time, we learn of their rather dysfunctional home lives, and they resort to making biting and morbid jokes about it. Peter, Dan and Sandy form a bond, and share personal feelings with one another and experiment with their innermost sexual curiosities and desires. What starts off as cute, sexy becomes a little more biting (for example, the scene in which Peter and Dan feel up Sandy in a movie theater).
When a nerdy, morally right girl named Rhoda comes into their circle, they belittle and taunt her. They sort of warm to her later, by teaching her how to swim, and also Peter warms to her more and they develop a crush on each other. The final scene we know...
To better understand films, I read reviews to gain more objectivity and insight. And I have come to read, and agree, that the film is very much about sexual power, and how desires and curiosities can become hellish and cruel. Very much like LORD OF THE FLIES, as one reviewer put it. Previously in the film, Sandy and the boys nurse a seagull back to health and when it attacks Sandy she becomes angry and kills the bird. This is the first inclination that tells us this is not going to be an easy movie to sit through.
The fascinating aspect is how the young can be, and learn to be, violent and evil. This film is more about provoking emotion and thought rather than happy-go-lucky. It has those sunshine, cute little moments in the beginning and throughout but it becomes something darker and sinister altogether. This film needs a Criterion re-release, and a critical re-appraisal for being an underrated piece of work. Wherever you find it, watch it and be captivated. It will leave you thinking about it again and again. That's what art is supposed to do.